This article evaluates and elucidates the intersections across social and economic determinants of health and social structures that maintain current inequities and structural violence with a focus on the impact on imMigrants (immigrants and migrants), refugees, and those who remain invisible (e.g., people without immigration status who reside in the United States) from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. Psychology has a history of treating individuals and families without adequately considering how trauma is cyclically and generationally maintained by structural violence, inequitable resources, and access to services. The field has not fully developed collaboration within an interdisciplinary framework or learning from best practices through international/global partnerships. Psychology has also been inattentive to the impact of structural violence prominent in impoverished communities. This structural harm has taken the form of the criminalization of imMigrants and refugees through detention, incarceration, and asylum citizenship processes. Most recently, the simultaneous occurrence of multiple catastrophic events, such as COVID-19, political polarization and unrest, police violence, and acceleration of climate change, has created a hypercomplex emergency for marginalized and vulnerable groups. We advance a framework that psychologists can use to inform, guide, and integrate their work. The foundation of this framework is select United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to address health inequities.

Abstract. This conceptual paper provides an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare disparities and particularly its impact on marginalized communities. This critical analysis addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 10, and 16, which include health and well-being, reduction of inequality between and within countries, and the need for peaceful and inclusive societies. COVID-19 has infected over 189 million individuals in 220 countries and territories. The pandemic exposed long-standing healthcare inequities between and within countries. Prior to the pandemic, there were limited health and mental health services available to marginalized communities, individuals of lower socioeconomic status, and those in low- and middle-income countries; COVID-19 overburdened healthcare and mental health systems, which resulted in grave mental and physical health consequences. SDG 10 focuses on reducing inequality within and between countries and the need for advocacy for vulnerable groups. International psychology is in a unique position to address the ethical issues associated with healthcare disparities and rationing of care. SDG 3 addresses the need for good health and well-being for all. Achieving this goal is a challenge because of unequal access to healthcare and barriers to services continue, particularly in countries without universal healthcare. Goal 16 focuses on creating and promoting peaceful, just, and inclusive societies and institutions. However, access to healthcare does not erase long-standing histories of injustice, colonialism, and discrimination. Additionally, appreciation of the suspicion with which many minority communities view the healthcare system can be the first step in addressing vaccine reluctance.

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Objective: Research suggests that antiimmigrant policies enacted in the United States, magnified during the 2016-2020 period, propagate widespread trauma across communities of immigrants (von Werthern et al., 2018). While these policies harm all groups of immigrants, structural conditions (e.g., lack of documentation status, race, ethnicity, country of origin, and other social and legal determinants) shape how they are experienced. To address the widespread traumatic harm inflicted by racist and xenophobic policies, a group of leaders from eight Divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA) launched an Interdivisional Immigration Project (IIP). Method: The IIP served to develop a model for collaborative advocacy, bringing together mental health providers (i.e., psychologists, social workers), allied professionals, and immigration activists from community organizations across the country. This model was developed over the course of 1 year, coinciding with the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the amplified movement for racial justice. Results: This article describes the key components of the IIP collaborative advocacy model: (a) structuring leadership in a democratic and egalitarian manner, (b) centering and uplifting immigrant voices, (c) forming teams across five U.S. regions, (d) facilitating critical dialogues grounded in liberatory practices, (e) centering trauma and empowerment, and (f) developing advocacy strategies. The IIP collaborative advocacy model is informing advocacy to protect immigrants from harm. Discussion: This model may be used as the basis for ongoing humane immigration policy activism that centers the voices of community activists, and that pushes psychologists and allied professionals to use their positionality to support community-based efforts. Clinical Impact StatementThe current manuscript describes a model of collaborative immigration advocacy developed through the Interdivisional Immigration Project (IIP). The IIP is an initiative that involved leaders from several divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA), and leaders from immigrant activist community organizations across the country. The model may be used by providers of health and mental health services to collaborate with community activists. Collaborative advocacy that is community-based and aimed at supporting humane immigration policies may help prevent further trauma stemming from policies that target and harm immigrants.

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